Treat to Try: Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery

About five years ago, Columbus was hit hard by the cupcake bus. It seemed like there was a spot on every corner, peddling artisan cupcakes.

All good things must come to an end, and many cupcake joints faded into oblivion, joining a legion of other bygone trends like fro-yo. These days, cupcakes have returned to the status of “special treat.”

Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery offers plenty of special treats, and it teams them with house-made ice cream. Located around the corner at Stoneridge, it’s a squeaky-clean little boutique where pretty poofy-topped cupcakes are displayed behind the counter.

There’s something worth pointing out right away: it’s not just the frosting that determines the flavor here, the cupcake itself makes a contribution. During the prior cupcake craze, it was a common practice to offer only vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, leaving the frosting as the way to distinguish flavors.

But consider the house Blackberry & Bourbon Cupcake. It’s built on a blackberry cupcake, vaguely purple, with bits of berry pulp infusing it with natural flavor. The cake is topped with an oversized swirl of sweet frosting that’s glazed with honey and crowned with a fresh blackberry. There’s bourbon somewhere in that mix, its warmth sneaks into the profile late in the first bite.

Or there’s a Boston Creme Cupcake. It’s built on an achingly tender vanilla sponge, along with a double-dose of vanilla and chocolate icings. The best part of all awaits inside the first bite, where it hits you with a smoothy-smooth custardy center hidden inside.

There’s a case of house-made ice cream too. You can team it with your cupcakes, or enjoy it straight. You’ll find traditional flavors, along with items such as Bourbon Brown Sugar Peach, and 24 Carrot. The latter has the warm-baked-flavor goodness of carrot cake, albeit with a silky smooth consistency.

Some of the flavors change regularly, but there’s always something good: Smallcakes is at 1249 N. Hamilton Rd.